Instagram September

With September comes homework.  And with homework comes a certain amount of grumpiness, particularly from Ben, who had almost zero homework last year.   Either his 5th grade teacher didn’t assign much, or Ben got it finished before he got home, so Ben had a whole year of free and easy home livin’.

Sixth grade homework came as a shock to his fragile little homework-deprived system, as did the organization middle school required.  He earned 5 tallies in his first week and was shocked when I pulled up grade reports (I can see his grades any time, thanks to Powerschool) that were far less than his usual stellar.  I’m happy to say that he’s received no further tallies and has brought his grades back up where they belong after that rocky start.

Dave suggested to Ben that he do his work with a cuddly friend.  Apparently, that’s how Dave gets things done.

For some reason I can’t remember (probably just to be funny) Jack drew a face on his belly and name it Ron Seltzer, Jr.

He drew that face with permanent marker and it took about a week for Ron Seltzer Jr. to disappear.  In the meantime, he kind of became part of the family.  Jack would inform us after dinner that Ron Seltzer Jr. sure enjoyed that meal.  Ron Seltzer Jr. was not fond of showers.  Ron Seltzer Jr. could dance (Jack would do belly rolls) etc.  It got to the point that various family members would occasionally ask after Ron Seltzer Jr. (“Hey, Jack, how’s Ron Seltzer Jr. doing?”)   I personally enjoyed giving Ron Seltzer Jr. a bunch of raspberries every chance I got.  Anywho, Ron Seltzer Jr. eventually washed off and we all kind of miss him.  Jack suggested he draw another, but we all knew it wouldn’t be the same.

And no.  I didn’t make any of that up. 

Maddie took a nap.  She just takes the most photographic naps, I tell you.

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Jack took three pictures of his tongue this month.  I don’t know why.  Maybe Ron Seltzer Jr. knows, but he can’t tell us anymore.

Maddie and Jack both had to get their blood drawn, and both were exceedingly wonderful about it.  And in case you’re wondering, Jack does not have a seafood allergy and Maddie was found to have a peanut allergy (mild).  Whaaaaat?

And in an interesting twist of events, the nurse up there holding Maddie’s arm was a former 6th grade student of mine…and her father yelled at me for starting his parent-teacher conference 7 minutes late.

Maddie’s in my brother-in-law’s wedding in December and needs to find red shoes to wear.  I think we found the perfect pair!

The spiky little nubs are perfectly offset by the 5 inch heel!

We shnuggled by a fire.

Ben’s flag football is off to a great start!

                       (He thought he’d up the difficulty level by scoring with his eyes closed).

Ben is taking Home Ec (they call it something else…maybe Family Consumer Science?) and he came home last Friday and asked if he could make pumpkin bread, and even though I was super tired and the last thing I wanted to do was supervise the making of pumpkin bread, I let him.  I’m not kidding you when I tell you that he took about 40 minutes to measure everything out.  That’s right.  FORTY MINUTES and the ingredients weren’t even mixed together yet.  But the end result was delicious and look how proud he is!  He next wants to make a crescent roll/sauce/cheese/pepperoni concoction for supper and that is planned for Sunday night.

The last Rainbow Snow of the season!  Waaaah!

My mom’s birthday was this month and Maddie and I took her out for lunch to the Hershey Pantry followed by dessert at Desserts Etc.

Maddie wasn’t feeling her best that day.  Apparently she put too much mousse in her hair that morning…

We also stopped at a yard sale and Maddie scored!

It’s a gorgeous Webster’s Dictionary from 1897 or somewhere near there.  The dude wanted $5 for it but I talked him down to two because it’s held together with duct tape.

Maddie and I helped Dave with his golf tournament (Dave and some friends have organized a golf tournament to benefit our church two years in a row now…this year there were over 100 participants!)  Maddie and I were in charge of a game at one of the holes.  The golfers had to each pay $5 (if they wanted to participate).  It was a 50/50 raffle, so whoever hit their ball closest to the hole by the end of the day won half the money we collected at the hole.  This meant Maddie and I had to go back and forth between the hitting off area and the hole a million times so we could measure their distances.  After awhile, I trusted Maddie to do it herself and I stayed behind at the hitting area.  She was THIRLLED to drive that golf cart herself!

We had a fabulous time!

That’s it for September!

Playgroup (Almost) All Grown Up

Back when Maddie was a toddler and Ben was a baby, a few friends and I started up a playgroup.  It rotated every week between all our houses, and let me tell you, I looked forward to play group so much because I knew it was an hour and a half of guaranteed grown up talk time.  I looked forward to so few things in those days, because there really wasn’t much to look forward to.  I liked grocery shopping because it was something to do (even though shopping with a toddler and a baby was decidedly not fun).  I took lots of walks, which were also frustrating because someone was always hungry or throwing their socks out of the stroller or starting to cry, but at least it broke up the very long and lonely day.

This morning I was chatting with a few other moms between a confirmation meeting and mass when I realized that much of our original playgroup was all standing right there!  So I made all of the now teenagers stand together and smile.  And after they all rolled their eyes, they did.

Here’s the BEFORE (probably about 2003:

l-r:  Caroline, Brady, Maddie, Erin, Ben, (Jake-not shown below), (Mason-not shown below), and Hannah.

And the NOW:

                l-r:  Erin, Caroline, Maddie, Hannah, Brady, and Ben.

Three eighth graders and three 6th graders!  I have a feeling if we put all these kids together on a swing set and wagon nowadays they’d all pull out their electronics and ignore each other.   

Have a great week!

Labor Day Weekend

On the Friday of Labor Day weekend, the kids had off from school, but I spent a good 6-7 hours in school just trying to get caught up with everything.  When I got home around 3:00, Jack was antsy with a capital A.  I asked him if he wanted to take a trip to one of his favorite places:  the Quittie Park. 

Of course his stinky big brother and sister were not interested, so we went alone. 

First Jack took off his shoes and waded in around the edge of the creek where he found a little clam…he even saw it slide back into its shell when he picked it up!

Then we walked down the path next to the creek where the rapids are.  Jack really wanted to cross the rapids on some rocks and go to a little peninsula that juts out from the other side.  I said he could try it, and about 6 feet in, he hit a deep spot and went down to his belly into the water!  After that, I told him to just have fun and not worry about his clothes…he really couldn’t get any wetter!

Working his way across…

He made it!  (The rapids actually made his crossing pretty tricky.)

He played over there for about 10 minutes before working his way back to me.  We continued on our walk to a path I don’t usually take (because I like to stay next to the creek, away from the deep of the woods which I can only assume is full of raccoons, spiders, snakes, skunks, and rabid chipmunks.)

We went up these steps, which I had never seen before, and they gave me hope that we’d be coming into civilization soon, but right when Jack got to the top, he yelled, “I know where we are!  We’re where Uncle Allan fell off the cliff!”

Going up…                                                                                                                           Looking down…

 

Let me tell you, I hightailed it up there fast, because the story is that Dave and his brother (Allan) and sister (Sue) were playing in that area (Allan told us last weekend they were trying to build a fort on the side of the cliff) when Allan fell down the cliff.  Sue and Dave thought he must be dead and I think they cried, both for their dead brother and for themselves having to tell their mother.  Anyway…he was fine.

See?

Jack and I soon headed out of the Quittie Woods and visited with Grandma and Papa for a little bit, since they’re lucky enough to have the Quittie Woods just a teeny bit away from their backyard.

On Saturday, we went swimming at the Palmyra Pool with Jack’s scout pack, but I’ve already shared most of those pictures in my Instagram August post.  On Sunday, we joined Dave’s family at a Lancaster Barnstormer’s game (hosted by the miraculously alive Uncle Allan who scored us a suite thanks to some of his parishioners, I believe).  We had a fabulous time at the game.  It was so cool having our own suite.  We even got special VIP parking and a boatload of food brought to our suite! 

                                                                                                                                               Howdy from Herbie, by the way.

Then on Labor Day, Dave suggested a bike ride around Memorial Lake.  We had such a great time!

Then we came home and did yard work.  Boo.

And then we had to go back to school the next day.  Boo hoo.

But on the bright side of things, we harvested Jack’s watermelon and it weighed 16.6 pounds, and was delicious!

Instagram August

I got a new app at the beginning of August and had pictures like this in mind when I added it to my phone…

Pretty cute, huh?  Of course, it wasn’t long until the kids discovered the app and I’ve been finding occasional gems like these in my photo stream:

My parents celebrated their 49th anniversary on August 1st! We stopped out to take them their gift and visit a little bit, and I snapped this shot of them:

Which of course, somebody embellished…

We spent the first week in August at the beach.  Here are some Instagrams that didn’t make my original Cape May posts:

AHEM! Jack Henry Wolfe, get that cigar out of your grandma’s mouth!

Anywho.

After we got back from the beach, we celebrated Ben’s 12th birthday the next day with a pool party.  He had asked for a Butterscotch Krimpet cake, and I couldn’t have asked for an easier cake to make the day after getting back from the beach…

This one’s from my big girl camera (not my phone/Instagram) but I’m going to share it with you anyway because I like it:

The following week, we hosted my mom’s side of the family for a little party.  We missed Aunt Betty at this one,  but my cousin Donna made the homemade peanut butter fudge and onion pretzels that Aunt Betty always brought, which was nice.

I only took one picture with my camera phone…Maddie and my mom.

And…you guessed it…

When we got back from the beach, we (Jack and I) were excited to see our sunflowers finally blooming!  Unfortunately, they are pointing the wrong way, which I’m sure makes my neighbor Elizabeth happy, but is a letdown for our side of the fence (it doesn’t really look it in the picture below, but the fence is just off the photo’s edge and they are looking that way).

                Now, at the end of August…they are looking pretty sad.

I don’t do a lot of Back-to-School shopping in August, because clothes are still geared toward summer, but we do get school supplies and sneaks.  I considered taking out a loan after buying three pairs at once.

Back in July I told my hairdresser that I was thinking about having her take three inches or so off the next time I go.  I am so tired of this bush on my head.  The thing is, when my hair is long, I can at least pull the bush back into a ponytail, and history shows that when I go short, my hair poofs out even more and then I can’t pull it back and I’m miserable.  But I’m sick of it!  Anyway, I was at an in-service and found someone whose hair I really liked (I think she’s part of the administrative support staff at the high school).  So after creepily checking her out for longer than was appropriate, I approached her with a non-creepy (I hoped) smile and told her how much I liked her hair and she said she had just gotten it cut the day before…it had been really long and she just decided to chop it off.  And then I told her how I have this horrible frizzy hair and she said she had horrible frizzy hair and then I (not creepily at all) asked if I could take her picture.  And she let me!  So here’s the picture.  Should I get my hair cut?  Tell me in person or comment!  My next hair appt is in mid-September, and I need to make up my mind!

Poor Dave.  He’s going to weep (inside, of course) when he reads this post.  He’s lived through 15 years of my hair issues.  Buckle your seatbelt, Honey, this ride ain’t over yet.

Herbert and I played a competitive game of Scrabble the day before school started. 

        It doesn’t matter who won.  What’s important is that we had quality time together.

We also went mini-golfing the day before school started and I was reminded once again how much I hate mini golf.  I would seriously just pick up the ball and stick it in the hole if I could (and I did, actually, often scootch it in with my foot when no one was looking).  Anyway, here are my Mini-Golf Ninjas:

And then school started!  Here are my 8th and 6th graders:

And my 3rd grader, all alone on the elementary bus for the first time ever:

They all like school this year (although Ben would rather be home, but will admit he doesn’t hate it.)

Jack’s annual Scout Day at the Palmyra Pool was on Labor Day weekend.  Everyone had fun on the bouncy dives and the water slide.  (Even Dave).

And finally, Herbert:

Happy September from the fanciest guinea pig in the world.